What's In A Name?

-a very short piece of writing

Wiley Hunter is a hard name to live up to if you’re an anti-gun vegetarian out here where some believe the high school should shut itself down for deer season. Almost as bad a name as Alexander Bates after our Grade Six year when we had the exchange teacher from England who called everyone Master Hunter or Master Smith or whatever. I figure that’s the reason Alex turned into such a skirt chaser, at least eight kids by three different women. He had to disprove the nickname.

Funny how those childhood handles stick. Newcomers, which is anyone who wasn’t born here even if they’ve lived here thirty years, wouldn’t know that Cheryl Milford is called Saucy because her maiden name was Applebaum which became Applesauce which we shortened to Saucy. She’s actually as withdrawn as cash from a gambler’s bank account, quieter than a teenager trying to sneak in after curfew. Not Saucy at all.

But the worst has to have been Murray Finnie after some wag reversed the letters to make Furry Minnie. Though now he’s Father Finnie. Or Father Furry behind his back.